As per a survey conducted by The State of Javascript for 2018, React surpassed Angular and others in becoming the most loved UI framework. The popularity of React has left many of us wondering whether it will be the most dominant framework of 2019. The framework, developed and maintained by Facebook, is widely used by PayTM, Fiverr, Instagram, IMDB, and many other popular organizations. Let’s discuss the benefits of React and the reasons why it has become so popular.

So, What Is React.js?

The social media giant, Facebook, introduced React.js to the world in 2013. It is an open-source JavaScript framework, the purpose of which is to create engaging and rich web applications that can run efficiently with minimal coding. Earlier, Angular was considered to be the most preferred option for developing single page web applications, but with the introduction of React, which focuses on the features of individual components, developers found their newly developed web pages rendered faster. Along with the flexibility to cover a larger number of use test cases, React has a vast tutorial base and a large community of developers who can provide solutions to problems faced by new, as well as experienced, developers.

Does it Really Make Handling Projects Easier?

Developers always prefer a framework that breaks down difficult and complicated components and makes it possible to finish the project faster by creating reusable code. Traditional JS frameworks like Angular or Ember.js require a developer to write a lot of code for creating a module or a component.

The major reason behind the popularity of React in 2019 is that it does not demand any additional effort or rework from a developer. With the flexibility and robustness it offers, developers can easily build a complicated module faster and reuse the code as much as needed in other modules, thereby ensuring a faster application that can be rendered easily in different browsers with very little loading time. This makes it a perfect choice for developers who are keen on cross-browser compatibility.

Work Less, Achieve More With React in 2019

JSX Making Component Writing Easier: Although the use of this extension is optional, once used, component writing becomes much easier. While building custom components, it accepts HTML quoting and can easily convert HTML mockups to React trees.

Reusable Assets Boost Productivity: Reusability is a well-known aspect of development that saves a lot of rework. One of the primary benefits of React is that simple components like buttons or checkboxes can be reused, and even complex system components can be reused, without the fear of one’s functionality affecting another.

Rendering Becomes Faster: While building a complex application, it is important to think about how the structure will affect the performance of the application when it is rendered online. React has a Virtual DOM that makes a heavy application load faster.

Code Remains Stable: Only downward data flow is used in React. This ensures that even a very minor change in the child element does not affect the parents. A particular component is updated only after the developer changes the object, modifies the state, and then makes the code changes.

Set of Tools to Make Work Easier: React comes with few design and debugging tools in the form of a browser extension that can be used on both Chrome as well as Firefox. These tools enable developers to discover parent and child components, allow developers to observe the hierarchy between different components, and inspect their state and properties.

Adapting to a Mobile First Approach: React follows the same pattern in both mobile and web development. With only simple JavaScript and React, a developer can easily build rich mobile applications that are responsive and cross-browser compatible.

Cons of React in 2019

Changes a lot and breaks often: The React environment changes frequently, forcing developers to learn new ways of doing stuff that they already learned sometime earlier. It is a bit frustrating to keep up-to-date since React is evolving at quite a fast pace.

Poor Documentation: No matter how fast the technology is evolving, guidelines and documentation are not keeping up. Developers face quite a bit of trouble during integration and are compelled to write their own guidelines and documentation.

Small Package Ecosystem: Since React is still an emerging technology, the ecosystem working behind it is very small, especially if you are comparing it with Angular. In open source contributions, you may not find the thing that you need.

If you are thinking about developing a single page application, and making it user-friendly, fast, and responsive, then React is one framework which is worth looking into. It is used by thousands of companies worldwide for their sites, applications, and internal projects.

Organizations like Walmart, Tesla, and Airbnb have used React to develop their websites as well as native mobile applications. Not only that, with over 600 million users, Baidu Mobile shows the benefits of React for making an application that can handle large internet traffic. React may continue to hold its position as the most preferred JavaScript framework.

However, just like all other JS frameworks, the usage of React will also decline. 2018 saw a gradual decline in the use of React. Vue.js seems to be growing faster in comparison to React.

We cannot ignore the advantages and learning opportunities that React is offering today and in the coming years.

Summing up the pros and cons, React.js can be described in three words: advanced, responsive, and risk-free. It skillfully tackles the challenge of building large scale applications with dynamic data changes. Providing developers with a virtual DOM as well as developer tools, single page applications can be developed much faster by using React.